Alex Spillius is The Daily Telegraph's Washington Correspondent.

John McCain starts Super Tuesday early

Full coverage of the US elections 2008McCain has brought his Straight Talk Express to Manhattan. They like a bit of straight talk here, but at 7.30 in the morning? The crowd is small, mostly volunteers, with people on their way to work at the fringes. The double row of cameras is what McCain wanted to see the rally-ette in front of the Rockefeller will hit all the networks and regional news programmes early and should be good until lunchtime.

With 21 states mainland states voting, like other candidates he has managed to make one or at most two visits to a dozen states since the Florida primary a week ago today. The past week has been an airwave war. McCain can't compete with Romney's cash for TV advertising (though the mega-millionaire has spent less in the past seven days than anticipated), but he is adept at getting the free advertising of news coverage.